Anadarko Petroleum Corporation (NYSE: APC) Cut to Market Perform at FBR.
Biovail Inc. (NYSE: BVF) Cut to Hold at TD.
JinkoSolar Holding Co., Ltd. (NYSE: JKS) Reiterated Buy at Auriga.
Medtronic Inc. (NYSE: MDT) Cut to Neutral at JPMorgan.
Olympic Steel Inc. (NASDAQ: ZEUS) Cut to Hold at KeyBanc.
Procter & Gamble (NYSE: PG) Raised to Buy at Argus.
Skilled Healthcare Group, Inc. (NYSE: SKH) Raised to Buy at Jefferies.
Tesla Motors, Inc. (NASDAQ: TSLA) Started as Overweight at JPMorgan.
THQ Inc. (NASDAQ: THQI) Cut to Neutral at Stern Agee.
Veeco Instruments (NASDAQ: VECO) Cut to Hold at Canaccord.
Whole Foods Market Inc. (NASDAQ: WFMI) Raised to Buy at Canaccord.

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JON C. OGG

Alnylam (ALNY) Started as Buy at Jefferies and at Roth.
Deutsche Bank (DB) Raised to Neutral at JPMorgan.
Drugstore.com (DDSCM) Started as Buy at Janney Montgomey Scott.
Olympic Steel (ZEUS) Raised to Buy at KeyBanc.
Sepracor (SEPR) Started as Buy at Sun Trust Robinson Humphrey.
US Steel (X) Raised to Buy at KeyBanc.
Yahoo! (YHOO) Raised to Buy at Soleil.

JON C. OGG

Below are the stock calls seen in the steel and related sector:

• Nucor Corp. (NYSE: NUE) is its Top Pick in the sector;
• and that is followed by Olympic Steel (NASDAQ: ZUES) and Reliance Steel (NYSE: RS) as Buy ratings;
• it also has Allegheny Tech (NYSE: ATI), U.S. Steel (NYSE: X) as Neutral ratings;
• Schnitzer Steel (NASDAQ: SCHN) was downgraded to the loathed SELL rating from an already lackluster Neutral rating.  It sees a 15% downside to its new price target of $47.00 as the premium to peers is unwarranted.
• AK Steel Holding (NYSE: AKS) is being removed from The Americas SellList and therefore being raised to a Neutral rating.  Its 2008estimates are being hiked to $4.25 from $3.30 and the 2009 estimatesare being raised to $3.85 from $3.35. 

Jon C. Ogg
January 16, 2008

Tonight Cramer discussed his individual stock picks on CNBC’s Mad Money for each sector where he believes we are in a "Wild Bull Market" where he thinks the names will continue rising the rest of this year.

He gave a larger list earlier tonight.  Here is his big list of stocks that are in Agriculture, Machinery, Infrastructure, and Aerospace.

5) Oil & Gas, which were down hard today: Halliburton (HAL) is 12% under where it was last year and this is the one to buy; in Oil he likes Royal Dutch Shell (RDS/A); the runner up is Exxon Mobil (XOM) as the go-to name for institutions.

6) Minerals, where the mergers are nuts: The buy for the things the Chinese use is Freeport-McMoRan (FCX) for copper and gold that could see its 9-times earnings go to 12-times.  Lundin Mining (LMC) is Cramer’s runner up, but only after the merger closes and then it can go to $15.00.  Lundin was also one of 24/7 Wall St.’s "Overlooked Metals Stocks" back on May 11, although the stock is down about 5.5% since that date.  Our other pick from around the same time Olympic Steel (ZEUS), and it is up close to 1% since then.

Jon C. Ogg
May 29, 2007

Jon Ogg can be reached at jonogg@247wallst.com; he does not own securities in the companies he covers.

When you look at the large metals companies such as US Steel (X-NYSE), Alcoa (AA-NYSE), Rio Tinto (RTP-NYSE), Alcan (AL-NYSE), Arcelor Mittal (MT-NYSE), Freeport McMoRan (FCX-NYSE) and many other giants in the metals sector either in the midst of a merger or rumored to be in a merger, it just makes you wonder if there are many much smaller companies that have been overlooked.  These all have to be evaluated on their own outside of any merger hopes, but there are still some interesting names.

We are running 4 or 5 niche-oriented stocks in the metals sectors and this is the first of the series. Gone are the days that these can be found at 6-times earnings, so the "cheap" term has to be thought of in the light that we are in a metals world driven by foreign demand and further driven by merger speculation.  We are only focusing on companies that have niche businesses or operations that make them seem attractive or cheap on their own merits.

One company that fits the bill is Lundin Mining Corp. (LMC-NYSE).  This is a $3.6 Billion market cap stock, so it is hard to call it a stealth play or one that has been entirely overlooked.  But Lundin is still one that the bulk of the investor population does not know or at least does not follow.  It is essentially a recombined company of the EuroZinc that was purchased last year and of several roll-ups.  It has its registered offices in Canada but operational headquarters in Sweden (and family owned control in Switzerland).  Lundin is not bound by many of the same limitations and geographic restrictions as American companies and it hardly has much Wall Street following.

Its main operations are copper, zinc, and lead, and those of course create other side and byproducts.  This is one that is still acquiring companies and it is soon to get more nickel exposure.  It is currently in an agreement with Canadian listed base metals producer Rio Narcea Gold Mines, Ltd. and in a separate agreement with Tenke Mining Corp. to merge. Rio Narcea will contribute to cash flow from its Aguablanca nickel mine in Spain. Tenke offers a highly promising project in the medium to longer term through its holding in the Tenke Fungurume project, which is one of the largest high-grade undeveloped copper-cobalt deposits in the world, with a planned production start-up in late 2008.

The company turned in lower than expected results and this actually allows us to evaluate it with less rose-colored glasses and on a more conservative basis.  It turned in revenues of $193.9 million in dollar terms and net earnings of $53.7 million, or $0.19 EPS.  It also is somewhat thin volume with usually about 1 million shares per day.

Lundin has a large project coming on this year in Portugal and another in 2008 in Congo.  It operates in Sweden, Portugal, Ireland, Russia, Spain, and elsewhere. What is more likely instead of this company being acquired is that the company keeps growing by smaller accretive acquisitions where it can make them.  The company is also under a Lundin Family consortium in Switzerland, so this would not be a company that an outside could easily just go out and make a hostile tender for.  It is under new leadership from inside the company and it has not been without operational deaths and accidents. 

Any buyer of Lundin Mining stock better be comfortable with somewhat of a lack of transparency and be willing to risk a “sum of the parts” out 12 to 24 months after the real results and constitution are known about all of the projects that are coming on-line over the next year.  This is not one where speculators should be hoping that someone comes along to just acquire it. That isn’t likely, or at least not right now with some unknown project values, and not at current prices.  The data is also still outstanding as far as who owns what percentage of the company because not all of the SEC filings from institutional buyers have been made fresh and up to date yet. 

This one has been kept somewhat quiet and has more reserved holders because of the aggressive acquisitions and limited “new-co” history.  Jim Cramer has noted this one before at lower and higher prices, but outside of my following the name for a few months and whatever Cramer will say here and there, this one is very under-followed by Wall Street.  We fully understand that this one is not as straight forward on the financials or what the exact value will be 12 months out, but we are willing to venture forth on the company’s prospects.  Sometimes you have to ride the fringes to look for opportunities.  Lundin looks like an opportunity and is definitely on the fringes.

Stay tuned, because we’ll be following up on this one periodically.  Yesterday we noted Olympic Steel (ZEUS-NASDAQ) as the first stock of this feature.

Jon C. Ogg
May 11, 2007

Jon Ogg can be reached at jonogg@247wallst.com; he does not own securities in the companies he covers.

We are running 4 or 5 niche-oriented stocks in the metals sectors and this is the first of the series. Gone are the days that these can be found at 6-times earnings, so the "cheap" term has to be thought of in the light that we are in a metals world driven by foreign demand and further driven by merger speculation.  We are only focusing on companies that have niche businesses or operations that make them seem attractive or cheap on their own merits.

Olympic Steel (ZEUS-NASDAQ) $33.30 (-2%l -$0.71); 52-week trading range $21.03 to $39.49.  This trades for what is probably going to be 10-times forward earnings and about 1.5-times book.  There is very little hidden kicker in the company like cash hoards or easily spotted assets that are grossly undervalued.  It’s pretty straight forward.  This is thin volume and thinly covered, which you’d expect for a player with a $350 million market cap.  Its earnings consistency has been sporadic and it has grown its top-line at roughly 5%.  Revenues were $981 million in 2006.

Before getting excited about Olympic just as a buyout candidate, keep in mind that insiders hold close to 20% of the stock and Goldman Sachs, Barclays, and Dimensional each hold another 9% on average.  So if the holders don’t want to sell no matter what then it will be impossible to force a deal.   This should be looked at on a standalone basis because speculating in stocks just for the hope of a buyout is not a good enough reason to own a stock.

The company is also very subject to economic cycles and it is more involved in basically forging the steel into whatever manufacturers, transporters, infrastructure operators, machine makers, and the like need for their process.  So while it has facilities, it is not one that benefits from rising metal prices because it is not a miner.  You might even refer to them as a manufacturer’s manufacturer.  They partly  transformed themselves last year with an acquisition and the company has not come close to having too much market share. 

More detailed information can be found on them on their website.

Jon C. Ogg
May 10, 2007

Jon Ogg can be reached at jonogg@247wallst.com; he does not own securities in the companies he covers.